A moral balancing act

Your editorial (“Moral capacity”, October 16-22) works hard to make the case for Australia accepting more refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan, but there’s more than one way to look at it. As well as the positive benefits of increasing our refugee intake generally, there’s a corresponding list of negatives if we don’t. The negatives may well provide a more compelling rationale. By pursuing the current hardline position we risk not only our international credibility but also our strategic and trading relationships. Sadly, it’s too easy to conclude that the government is deliberately pursuing its current policy so that our country will become too unattractive as a refuge, making us all the losers.

– Jenifer Nicholls, Armadale, Vic